At a time when we are seeing a degree of sophistication enter the climate-change debate, it is disappointing to note the level of barstool wisdom that characterizes discussion of the subject amongst supposedly informed journalists.

If the size of a country is relative to its responsibilities in tackling climate change, perhaps Mr Doyle can tell how large a country has to be before it has responsibilities?

For instance, need climate change be an issue at all in Luxembourg, Andorra, or San Marino? And what about regions within countries? I'm quite sure that the inhabitants of my home county, Leitrim, have little impact on the level of global carbon emissions, so does that mean we can leave our windows open when we have the heating on?

What Mr Doyle fails to realise is that climate change is a political rather than scientific challenge, in that we all know what we need to do but no one is really keen to do it.

In that context, it is vital that all political excuses for inaction are removed, and the foremost political excuse that exists for governments is comparison with your neighbours.

For instance, if Luxembourg opts out of a measure, Ireland can argue that it should be able